


Stitched Together

by SoraMystic



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, I left the nature of their relationship here up in the air so read it however u want lmao, Multi, Unspecified Time, esp between Caleb and Molly, let my trash wizard be happy goddamn, mostly anyway, post-arrival in Zadash for sure, some injuries but nothing substantial, thinly veiled metaphors, unspecified place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 23:28:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16753510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraMystic/pseuds/SoraMystic
Summary: When working with the Mighty Nein, one should expect a number of injuries and material damage. Still, when the toll becomes so high one cannot manage on their own, well... Time to call in the cavalry, no?Also known as; the universe conspires to destroy Caleb's coat. Caleb eventually asks Molly for help. Molly happily obliges.





	Stitched Together

**Author's Note:**

> What's good y'all- My first work on this site and also my first ever CritRole fic. Enjoy.

Caleb curses as he feels the arrow tear his sleeve and arm open. He clasps a hand over the wound and curses again.

He hears Yasha roar and a resounding _thunk_ tells him the battle is over. Jester skips over to him. “Caaa~leeeb~ dooo youuu neeeeeed a heeeeaal~?”, she sings and Caleb can’t fight the half-smile that spreads across his face. “Ja, if you can spare one, that would be appreciated”, he says.

Jester nods happily, says; “Okidoki~”, and starts casting the spell. The wound closes up pretty much instantly till only a vague, red line remains. The sleeve remains torn, still, and Jester frowns. “Do you want me to cast Mending on that?”, she asks as she pokes his arm.

Caleb shakes his head. “No, thank you, I will fix it later”, he says and Jester shrugs. “Okidoki”, she says, again, and then goes over to Beau, who is bleeding from about three different places.

“I could fix it, if you want”, a voice near Caleb’s ear says and the wizard nearly jumps out of his skin. Instead he turns around and frowns at Mollymauk’s grinning face. “What did I tell you about personal space, mister Mollymauk?”, Caleb says.

Molly’s grin widens as he sheaths his scimitars. “Ah, I’m afraid I can’t remember, mister Caleb”, he says. “Joking aside, you need a hand with that?” He points at the torn sleeve.

Again Caleb shakes his head. “I can fix it myself, it’s just a small tear. Thank you, though, for the offer”, he says. Molly shrugs. “Suit yourself. Just know the offer still stands if you change your mind, alright?”

\--

Caleb spends the ensuing evening carefully stitching the sleeve back together, poking himself in the fingers a few times due to the dim light of the room. Eventually he succeeds, but the next morning he finds it has come undone regardless. Caleb sighs, figures he must’ve forgotten to tie off the thread, picks up the coat, and makes his way over to the room next to his.

He knocks and Fjord’s deep voice answers; “Yeah, come in.”

Caleb slowly opens the door and finds both Fjord and Molly getting ready for the day. “Caleb, what’s up?”, Fjord asks as he fastens the last clasp on his armor.

Caleb opens the door further, one hand on the knob, the other holding the coat. “Uh, ja, I was, uh, I was wondering if, uh, if, Mollymauk, if you could, maybe, help me with that sleeve from yesterday? I tried fixing it myself but it seems it came undone again during the night”, he says.

Molly smiles at him and slips on his own bright and gaudy coat before grabbing some tools from his satchel. “Of course. Why don’t I get started on that right away?”, he says and Caleb hands him the coat.

He finds it later that day draped over a chair in his room, a simple yet careful stitch the only testament to the tear from earlier. He smiles at it and puts his coat back on.

\--

Their adventures aren’t without dangers, and Caleb’s poor coat suffers quite a lot during their many battles. Eventually Caleb has given up on trying to mend the thing himself and just stared handing it to Molly whenever it got damaged, always finding it all better in his room the next day.

After the fourth time it happens, Caleb finds that the most recent tear has been fixed with a bright orange thread instead of the regular brown Molly normally uses for the repairs. He shrugs, not thinking much of it, and puts it on right as Jester nearly breaks down his door, asking him to identify some object for her.

The colored thread becomes somewhat of a theme, as well as the stitches getting more and more complex. One day Caleb notices that a particularly large tear near the hem of the coat has been fixed with orange thread and has the shape of a cat.

He bumps into Mollymauk on his way downstairs. “Oh, mister Caleb, how’s the coat? Still in one piece?”, Mollymauk smiles and Caleb finds half a grin creep its way onto his face as well. “Ja, and it is all thanks to your handiwork. Although, I do have a question about this…”, he says and pulls up the part of the coat with the cat-embroidery on it.

Molly’s smile falters only a little. “Ah… yes, that. I thought, well, to be honest I admit that was me getting bored? Just using the same color every time. If you don’t like it, I’ll remove it”, he says. Caleb shakes his head. “No, no, no need for that, just… I was just wondering why, since I didn’t, well…”

_Since I didn’t ask you to do it_ , he thinks, and immediately follows that up with, _but god I can’t say that to his face-_

Molly chuckles. “Yeah, no, I just thought it would liven things up a bit. But if you like it, do I, uhm, have permission to do that more often?”, he asks, and although his grin is cheeky, the tone is definitely sincere.

Caleb smiles a little. “Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be alright.”

\--

Over time, Caleb’s coat gains more complex stitches and odd patches.

There is a wavy, blue, complicated stitch over a long gash running up the left sleeve and Caleb is left wondering how Molly did that in only one evening. Because it’s always only one evening. No matter how large the tear, no matter how complex the patterns, it’s always there on his bed or on a chair the next day.

Other additions include: a pattern with dark green thread in the shape of a crossbow bolt, a patch made to look like a dark, yellow eye on the back of his right shoulder, a few more stitched cats, some embroidered wildflowers along the bottom of the coat, more blue waves and orange flashes, some patches of a brownish pink in the shape of candy on the back and under the collar.

Caleb notices the theme and doesn’t say anything about it. He’s pretty sure the rest of the Nein have noticed as well, but anyone has yet to ask about it.

Until one day the coat isn’t there the following morning.

Caleb goes to ask Molly about it but finds the door locked and the tiefling unresponsive. He briefly contemplates casting Knock to get the door open, but decides against it. Maybe Fjord knows more.

Unfortunately Fjord doesn’t know anything either. Actually, know that he thinks about it, he’s never actually seen Molly work on Caleb’s coat before.

Jester gasps. “Do you think he secretly works on it in the middle of the night or something??”, she asks with her usual cheery bluntness.

The comment leaves Caleb feeling a little weird. He can’t possibly fathom anyone sacrificing much-deserved rest just to fix another person’s coat, let alone someone like Mollymauk, who seems to adhere to a strict self-care ritual that includes bathing a lot and sleeping a full eight hours.

Fjord shrugs. “Can’t say it’s any of my business, but if y’all are worried I could ask”, he says. Jester and Nott immediately start shouting about how this is clearly a new mystery that they must unravel and Caleb decides he’ll just mind his own business in the meantime.

Two days later the coat reappears in his room, same as always, without an explanation for the long absence. Caleb would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little disappointed, but once again figures it’d be better not to ask and just puts the coat back on. He doesn’t see any immediate change, although upon closer inspection he finds complex designs and symbols stitched over the entire coat in a dark gold thread that’s nearly invisible.

Molly doesn’t say anything about it either, and doesn’t seem to have suffered any repercussions from working on it for so long – no bags under his eyes, no excessive yawning.

If Mollymauk actually had pulled any all-nighters, he was very good at hiding it.

\--

The purpose of the gold thread shows itself during the next fight they’re in.

Whenever Caleb casts a spell, the designs flare and the magic becomes stronger, does more damage, holds out longer, is harder to break.

Afterwards, when the encounter is over and they are all resting, Caleb scoots over to Mollymauk.

“So what exactly did you do? Your latest addition, it seems, hm, it’s very helpful? Where did you get this, this kind of magic?”, he asks. Molly grins at him as he fidgets with the Periapt. The grin isn’t as bright as usual, and now that he’s this close, Caleb can see the exhaustion that has carved itself into the tiefling’s face. So he _has_ been pulling all-nighters then.

“Pumat. Well, he enchanted the thread, to be exact. I still did all of the actual work”, Molly says, chin up, looking at Caleb from the corners of his eyes. Caleb grins a little as well. “That must have been, ehhh, very taxing on you. How long did this take you?”

Molly’s grin wavers a little. Then it broadens and he winks. “Not nearly as long as you’d probably think. My own coat was far more work. This was very easy, compared to that monstrous project”, he smiles.

Caleb runs his fingers across his left sleeve, feeling the many stitches of the enchanted patterns and thinks of the care and patience that went into this. A little voice in the back of his head hisses that he isn’t worth the care, the effort, the patience. That he isn’t worthy of all the work Molly put into this.

He pulls up his knees, wraps his arms around them and hides half his face into this makeshift barrier.

They sit in silence for a few minutes.

“…Thank you.”

Molly laughs.

“Don’t mention it, my friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> I like to think I got their manners of speech right. Or at the very least I had fun trying to phonetically transcribe it o3o


End file.
